Subject: Re: TK50 in uVAX2000 (hardware question)
To: None <PORT-VAX@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Roger Ivie <IVIE@cc.usu.edu>
List: port-vax
Date: 12/09/1996 09:13:12
Marc wrote:
> My question:
> Would it be possible to set-up the uVAX2000's TK50 in a PC with an Adaptec
> AHA1520 SCSI adapter to write down the NetBSD 1.1 boot image on the tape
> to boot the VAX3500 through the TK70?
In my (limited) experience, it's almost impossible to find software for PCs
which handles SCSI tapes. Perhaps if you have NetBSD running on the PC...
Yes, it is possible to attach a TK50 to a PC's SCSI adapter. We did that a
number of years ago while developing SCSI software before the tape drive
we were actually interested in appeared. The TK50 only knows how to do
fixed-length 512-byte blocks IIRC (the SCSI commands, of course, allow you
to specify transfers in multiples of blocks).
I wrote NetBSD on a TK50 using a uVAX 3100 and booted it in my MicroVAX II
using a TK70 drive.
Roger Ivie
ivie@cc.usu.edu